In early January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to carry out raids to deport hundreds of families that have fled violence in Central America. Gregory Chen, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), states that the Obama administration “has never acknowledged the truth: that these families are refugees seeking asylum who should be given humanitarian protection rather than being detained and rounded up. When other countries are welcoming far more refugees, the U.S. should be ashamed for using jails and even contemplating large-scale deportation tactics.” According to the Washington Post, “[m]ore than 100,000 [Central American] families with both adults and children have made the journey across the southwest border since last year, though this migration has largely been overshadowed by a related surge of unaccompanied minors” from Central America. Experts say that the violence that drove people from Central America last year has only intensified, "with the homicide rate in El Salvador reaching its highest level in a generation." - Justin Rhodes